Well, it is official, we will now be able to serve beer at the bed & breakfast - basically like we can already do with wine. We can’t charge for it though -as is the case for the wine, we can only give it away. It also must be produced in Minnesota. Still, this allows us to deliver a nice little extra in certain circumstances and help promote locally produced products. I wish there was a good micro-brew in Cannon Falls. Since there is no micro brew or brew pub at all, we’ll be looking north to St. Paul for particular selections from Flat Earth & Summit, farther north to Leech Lake Brewing, and not as far north to Surly Brewing.

Here’s the release from the governor’s office:

Today, Governor Mark Dayton signed the omnibus liquor bill, Chapter 55, HF 1326/SF 918, making several changes to current law.Senator Chris Gerlach (R–SD 37) and Representative Joe Atkins (DFL–HD 39B) were the chief authors of this bill. It has become known as the “Surly bill” because it creates a new class of license, a brewer taproom license, which will allow Minnesota breweries, including Surly Brewing Company, to sell pints of their beer on-site.

The new law will also allow bed and breakfast establishments to serve Minnesota produced beer. It will allow the issuance of on-sale licenses at racing tracks, and will allow an annual wine festival to serve customers. Additionally, it will allow for temporary licenses to farm wineries for on-sale at a county fair and will allow private nonprofit colleges to have liquor licenses.

The bill also makes other changes relevant to specific municipalities. This bill passed the Senate with unanimous support and the House with broad, bipartisan support.